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Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that Apple shed more than five percent of its stock price value in after-hours trading after the company reported its second quarterly miss on results in less than a year, highlighting how the Apple brand is becoming less resistant to the economic and product cycles that have plagued rivals. 'Clearly it was a disappointment,' says Channing Smith, Co-Manager of Capital Advisors Growth Fund. 'We expected a lot of consumers will probably delay their upgrade and their purchases until the iPhone 5 comes out. We saw a similar trend occur last year with the iPhone 4S.' Executives acknowledged buyers were refraining from purchases because of 'rumors and speculation' around the iPhone 5, which sources have said will ship in September with a thinner and larger screen. 'The iPhone 5 is already the most hyped device and for it to exceed expectations is going to be really hard,' says BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. This is one of many reasons Apple is so notoriously secretive. With the levels of hype that Apple product launches garner, it would undoubtedly crush its own sales if it announced products even months in advance. Instead, Apple slowly and silently draws down inventory in distribution channels, and then the upgraded product is available immediately (or nearly immediately) after it's announced. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, 'there is an incredible anticipation out there or for future products and as you would expect given what we've been able to deliver in the past.'"

I don't think there a lot of people activating phones by installing ROMS. Even Cyanogen, the most popular ROM has only 2.7 million total installs [cyanogenmod.com]. That's what? 3 days worth of Android activations. A drop in the bucket. The average user has no knowledge in flashing ROMS and installing even factory images.

Actually, I would initially argue Google as well as MS, however aside from Hype, there is one thing, which at first glance can look like a bad thing, but can also be turned into a case of 'turning your weaknesses into your strengths'.

Apple has much less variety in product lines than Google or MS in terms of the small-form-factor mobile market (cell phones, int the case of Google, tablets), or MS in terms of the notebook/desktop market. One reason I wouldn't get a MacBook - I'd have to pay a premium for things I don't give a damn about, while still missing things that are important to me.

How does Apple turn this weakness into a strength? Several things, some good, some, IMO, underhanded.1) More time for QA - since the products are tied together, and their is a smaller variance, Apple can spend more time on QA per product, while still spending a lot less money on QA. I wouldn't argue they are any more stable than a good MS or Google product, but they certainly are less quirky than all but the very best MS or Google alternatives, and they are more polished in most regards, than any of the competing products.2) Marketing - Apple can get by the lack of options by convincing the market they want what Apple is selling, rather than selling what the market wants. Often promoting hackish/clunky workarounds as acceptable. The caveat, is these tend to also primarily affect smaller groups in the market.3) Less confusion - users won't get option overload, which easily happens for a user not fairly well knowledgeable in a subject where there are many options.

Apple has much less variety in product lines than Google or MS in terms of the small-form-factor mobile market (cell phones, int the case of Google, tablets)...

How does Apple turn this weakness into a strength?

The smaller number of products as well as a better defined launch schedule with stable form factors, UI, feature sets and accessories are also good at capturing an audience of people who are either techno-phobic or simply do not have the time or desire to re-buy and re-learn products every couple of y

There are a gazillion "Android" phones out there... how do I know if I want 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0?, what do the different processor names mean?, can I actually compare "GHz" to get a reasonable idea of what is best (no)?, what apps will or won't run on this?

Clearly a troll, but common FUD nonetheless---and, as per the parent, Apple turning a weakness into a (perceived) strength). However, either:

You know enough to care, in which case you want the latest. You read a few reviews (there really aren't that many top phones every year) or ask someone you know, and find the clear winner. You know enough to compare simple numbers, such as versions.

You don't care, you just want one of these shiny smart android things you saw in a commercial. You ask the person at the store. He or she recommends one, you buy it. You're happy.

Despite "choice is bad" propaganda, which is surprisingly successful, especially among those who should know better, actually making a good choice is not difficult for anyone.

It's not that choice is bad, but Android is so fractured a platform that it negates its open-source benefits.

My partner learned that lesson when she bought her first Android phone: a Motorola Milestone. Piece of shit. Zero software updates, Motorola practically disowned it months after launch. The only option available was to root it and install 3rd party firmware that sort-of worked but was very rough around the edges. Her brand new phone was so bad, she lusted after my tired old iPhone 3GS. When she

No. You are not a highly technical person. Either that or you are a liar. A highly technical person would not have to spend significant time trying to figure out how to use an Android phone. A highly technical person would know that the OS version you want is whatever is the highest number, and would already know that one version back is fine. A highly technical person would know that getting the one product that isn't the best can be head and shoulders above the 'best' of a competing product. A highl

YOu arne't highly technical. I'm sure you have a delusion about that, but it's just that a delusion.

"how do I know if I want 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0?, what do the different processor names mean?, can I actually compare "GHz" to get a reasonable idea of what is best (no)?, what apps will or won't run on this?"

I certainly agree with most of your comment, but I do have one big gripe, and I say this as a lifelong PC freak.

One reason I wouldn't get a MacBook - I'd have to pay a premium for things I don't give a damn about, while still missing things that are important to me.

This is where I have to rebut. I've owned, repaired and/or sold just about every PC laptop on the market. When the time came to replace my own aging laptop last year, I looked everywhere for the right fit. There were none. Then someone hired me to write mobile apps so I needed a Mac. I bought a Macbook Pro, and it is the best damned laptop I've ever owned. I still hate the OS, but the hardware is fantastic. Fast, quiet, sturdy, functional, epic battery life. It is everything I want in a laptop. I don't feel like I paid a premium, because high-end PC laptops are just as expensive, yet they're pitched as "desktop replacement" devices, which is a euphemism for "big fragile noisy non-upgradable piece of tethered junk with a built-in UPS". I paid a high-end price for a high-end machine, got exactly what I wanted.

I kid you not, I'm in the PC sales and service business, and for years I've recommended Dell laptops, because hey at least you get a good warranty with your shitty laptop. I still do, because for most people, that's all they need, but for any professional use I try to steer them toward a Macbook. As a freelancer, I quite enjoy the convenience of a full day's work on a single charge. Worst case, if I'm doing compile-heavy stuff, I can quickly top-up during a coffee break, head over to the pub and sip a few pints while logging the other half of the day's billables.

Now, on the converse, I am not at all interested in Mac desktop computers. THAT is paying a premium for run-of-the-mill hardware. I wouldn't even buy an iMac for myself, because I can bolt a mini-ITX box to almost any LCD and have the same small footprint at a quarter of the cost. I sell "luxury" PC desktops (gamers, design nuts etc), and I don't think of Mac Pros as anything even remotely luxurious. Shiny, but not powerful for the money.

What's insane is that a company that did so well is considered to have "missed".

If you extrapolate from this one fact, that Apple does extremely well but is said to "miss" and the stock price goes down because their profits didn't grow faster than before, if you extrapolate from this one fact, you can understand why the economy - the whole economic system - is collapsing under its own greed. Enough is never enough.

[Full disclosure: I'm a shareholder since the Michael Spindler days, and yes, I understand about corporate "guidance" and what it means to say they "missed". My point stands.]

I agree wholeheartedly... it's even worse than that: Take Swisscom as an example. They make about a billion in profit per year. Last year, IIRC, they made about 1.1 billion. This was, again IIRC, more than they made the year previous.

Since analysts had expected them to make 1.2 billion, their stock fell. They made more than the year before and still they get the finger just because they made less progress than some other random schmuck expected.

This just in... Ramen Noodles [RAMN] shares are selling at record highs, and the company is valued at over 750 billion USD. Later we will discuss your money question of the week: "Should I invest in Cash n Go Payday Loans [PAYD] or Mad Dog 20/20 Kiwi [MDOG]? There is so much potential in both booming companies!" More at 11...

Even more insane is that a company that makes purely luxury products has the largest market cap in what everyone has been touting as a "great recession".

There is no recession among the customers for luxury goods. Our system is designed so that there can never be one.

Our system is not designed so much as steered by those with the most capital. If it is profitable to create a recession for luxury goods, there will be one. There is more money in the system than has ever existed in human history, and production has never been higher.

What you gotta realize is that the stock market, and especially the price of certain closely watched stocks like Apple's, are driven by trader's emotions and expectations. If they believe the price will go up, they buy, and the price goes up. If they believe it will fall, they sell, and the price goes down.

If it were objective, based solely on P/E ratios and such, Apple would already be trading at over $1,000.

Quite true, but what I don't understand is how their expectations can be so far out of alignment with Apple's guidance, which has a proven track record over the last decade or so as being consistently 8-10% under actual results (with the notable exception of the iPhone 4S' launch last year, which exceeded everyone's expectations). Apple doesn't play games with their guidance numbers, other than to shave off about a few percent in order to comply with good practice in providing a conservative estimate, and t

It's truly bizarre that someone would sell their Apple stock (which is what a lower share price really means--people are trying to offload) it just because profits weren't high enough, especially considering that Apple has only recently decided to start paying dividends.

With so many companies struggling just to break even, dumping a profitable stock just because it's become slightly less profitable doesn't strike me as the least bit intelligent or wise, and instead points right back to our dysfunctional business culture, in which nothing matters but short-term profits, regardless of the company's long-term prospects and potential.

(I say this as someone who is no fan of Apple, but damn if they aren't great at making money.)

especially considering that Apple has only recently decided to start paying dividends.

Let's see about that. $2.60 a share is very nice, and even after paying for my daughter's school I still have enough AAPL shares that the dividends will buy us a new used car, but their stock buyback plan has me worried about what their plans are.

Here's the problem: I'm conflicted because I believe that at some level what's good for AAPL stock price is not good for the economy, at least in this narrow case.

In my opinion, that is the worst problem of capitalism (coming from a supporter of capitalism)... the need for results now, not tomorrow, not next week...

Even worse, those results have to be continually growing.

There really are limits to growth. One great limitation of capitalism is that it has no prescription for what happens when those limits are reached except lopping off the bottom third of the population.

Anyway, it will work itself out in the wash... the stock price will go up when the iPhone 5 is ann

Right after "disappointing" announcements is a great time to buy Apple stock.

Apple has a giant pile of money so they don't need to sell any stock, so they're quite well insulated from their stock price. The stock going down means absolutely nothing except a) a good deal for sane investors and b) a loss for insane ones.

It's insane profit matched by insane operating cost, which remained the same as Q before. The reason why investors would be scared of that is because it raises a lot of curious questions.

Did Apple manufacture devices that are not leaving shelves? To say that people are waiting for the iPhone is a bad thing for a few reasons. A) most people want their new phone today, they are on a contract and if the sales person wants the sale he'll / she'll peddle any product B) The competition offer the end user the same

You are right, Apple don't appear to be trying to delay every single Android device from every single manufacturer. But then again, they don't have to. If you check out the "Android fragmentation" graphic [mshcdn.com] you will notice that the vast majority of devices are sold by only a few manufacturers - Samsung being the largest, with HTC, Sony and Motorola trailing. Apple has sued Samsung, HTC and Motorola - the curiosity is Sony, who haven't been sued yet. Why not is speculative: Why hasn't Sony been sued by Apple [cnet.com]

Anyone with a shade of education will understand statistical deviation around a steady trend. If you expect to make the exact extrapolated revenue figure, well, you should maybe go back to school or finde a more appropriate job than administering investment funds or consulting for the investment community. Just a thought.

The only people who were disappointed with Apple's results were the "financial analysts" (and I put that in quotes for a reason...) who made wild predictions and were proven, as they often seem to be proven, wrong. I don't know of any other profession, _including_ meteorologists, where being wrong in your prediction that often is acceptable.

Anyone who couldn't foresee buyers slowing down on iPhone purchases as the refresh date approaches, is an idiot. Apple has released their new model like virtual clockwork for several years. There was going to be a slowdown. Expect it. Here, I'll make a bold prediction - in one year's time, rumours will ramp up of an "iPhone 6" (which will actually be called the "iPhone 5S" though nobody will be smart enough to foresee that...) and sales of the iPhone 5 will slow down though Apple will still have an exceptionally strong quarter selling an enormous number of devices though "market analysts" will claim it's a disappointment. Write it down. Take it to the bank. That's a prediction you can bet money on.

Seriously, why investment firms pay these morons even a penny for their ill-informed random guessing is beyond me. Actually, that's not fair - if they were guessing randomly, they'd at least have a chance of periodically getting it right and the majority of these people get it 180 degrees wrong every time...

I don't think any fault lies on apple for this one. The financial analysts were wrong. I'm sure if you had asked accountants at Apple 2 months into the quarter they could have told you a much more accurate number of where they would be at the end of the quarter. All that being said, the analysts were only off by 6%. That's not all that much in the grand scheme of things. Especially considering they made a 23% profit (8 billion from one source I read). Any company that can make 23% profit selling electroni

Anyone could also see that Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs (it's unrealistic to expect that of ANYONE). Why everyone just assumed that Apple could continue on without taking at least some hit with the loss of Steve Jobs that is beyond me. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that there are very few leaders capable of inspiring and leading Apple staff (or bullying/conning them, if you want to take that view) quite like Steve Jobs.

Other way around, IMO. Steve Jobs was a great salesman with great mystique, but a fair amount of that mystique came from fear, replete with famous anecdotes about people meeting him in an elevator, being asked what they do, failing to respond quickly enough, and getting fired on the spot. Tim Cook, by contrast, seems like a straight shooter who is genuinely trying to make Apple a better, more responsible company that people will be proud to work for. He is very good at inspiring the troops, IMO.

I don't know of any other profession, _including_ meteorologists, where being wrong in your prediction that often is acceptable.

Keep in mind, that drop that the smart guys couldn't predict, was caused by rumors. The stock market is a strange beast, and nobody understands it completely: the very act of trying to model it, changes it. At least for models with enough predictive power to make you money.

Oh, come on... Everybody knows that the stock market is just a simple random walk, and any attempts at prediction are futile. Some folks buy, some folks sell, and there's no logic or trends in any of it. Analysts don't really "analyze" anything. They just sit in their offices all day drinking scotch and bourbon, throwing darts at a globe to decide where their next hunting trip will be. When it comes time for the quarter end, they roll some dice to guess what a particular company will do next quarter, then h

Anyone who couldn't foresee buyers slowing down on iPhone purchases as the refresh date approaches, is an idiot. Apple has released their new model like virtual clockwork for several years. There was going to be a slowdown.

Well, duh. Everybody did predict a slowdown. The trick is in predicting how much of a slowdown.

The drop-off in iPhone 4S sales came much earlier in the product's life cycle than did the drop-off in iPhone 4 sales. (Remember, between 4 and 4S there was actually a substantial deviation from "like virtual clockwork" of over a quarter.)

The problem with that is that Apple's stock price is, essentially, set by those same people. The only reason it's so high is because everyone is expecting Apple to continue to make increasingly ridiculous profits. So if the profits aren't quite as ridiculous as everyone was hoping for, then the extremely high stock price is no longer justified, and it'll drop, even though the company is still doing very, very well.

(Especially now, as Android is skyrocketing, Wall Street is looking for any sign of weakness i

There stock price isn't not high by price/earnings. Their price is only high to you because you see the price per stock. If they would split that stock, they'd have a more normal price, but then everybody and their brothers dog (not, of course, the totally techno-twits on Slashdot who wouldn't be caught dead using an iProduct) would attempt to buy Apple stock and then the P/E really would get out of whack.

I'm going to let my inner cynic out for just a few minutes. I think you're missing the point of stock analysts. Their purpose is not to help others make good decisions. Their purpose is to encourage people to make bad decisions that the big hedge funds can profit from. If you want to make money from the stock market, watch what the analysts say, then do the opposite. If they're saying that a company is going to have a really strong earnings report, sell the day before the earnings report, buy again the

There's plenty of things to slam Apple for, the myth that they refresh products quickly is not one of them. Apple is actually not releasing new hardware fast enough to keep up with Android; once a year for both iPhone and iPad, versus a dozen new Android models each year from Samsung alone. People who slam Apple but give Android makers a pass are hypocrites.

Android isn't hardware. Make some attempt to understand why Apple v. Android is a stupid mother fucking comparison.Apple vs. the latest Samsung running android? That would be a valid comparison.It's just a s stupid as comparing MS to Apple.

I've got a 3GS also, but am really at a crossroads. I bought the 3GS week one after the launch. At the time it was the exact phone I wanted. Now, though I'm torn... my 3GS screen just cracked and nothing is quite right.

No point in buying a 4S with the 5 around the corner. (Hell even if i wanted a 4S, waiting for the 5 and picking up the 4S on sale or gently used makes sense. But really.. I don't have a 4 or 4S precisely becuase they added nothing I wanted. And iphone 5 isn't looking to change that.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is high on my list and well reviewed, but until they officially announce jellybean for it with a ship date... I'm holding out. I've been burned before on promised upgrades that never materialized. Jelly bean seems like enough of an improvement that I won't settle for for anything less.

And even the Lumia's -- I actually really like them and am even seriously consideriing one for my next phone, but with WinPhone 8 around the corner, and it already being announced that the existing lumia's won't be upgraded. Again... holding out.

Right now is just a terrible time to buy almost a smart phone, to the point I'm seriously considering getting the screen fixed on this one. I can hand it down to my daughter or something.

I actually considered just fixing my screen as well (crack across the face too). The phone seems to work well enough and there's no problem in general with the software. Unfortunately with my wife leaving, I need to come up with a new contract for me and drop off hers. I just figure it's easier to drop me from the contract (she upgraded to a 4S last year) and start a new contract with a new phone. I am checking out what I might need to do to sever the contract or possibly just get a new contract with the sa

The screen cracked on my 3GS as well and I got it replaced because luckily I took out the insurance when I bought it. Also, once the 18 months initial contract ran out I got a PAYG SIM, so now I pay 10 per month instead of 35. I plan to never upgrade. My phone does what I need it to.

IMHO even if the next iphone is cooler than the previous ones and the competition, there can't be the same amount of emotion over the arrival of a fifth generation of whatever product. The next big thing needs to be different enough from the current way of interacting with iphone and tablets. Apple will still be dominant because apple products say: "I can afford to spend more money than what's needed" and there's a market for that.

I think part of it is when some people start asking "What's the difference?". If Apple can't come up with a satisfactory answer for the not-quite-zombified portion of their customer base, a lot of them will jump ship for Something New - even if that Something New is the fifth generation of another company's product.

IMHO even if the next iphone is cooler than the previous ones and the competition, there can't be the same amount of emotion over the arrival of a fifth generation of whatever product. The next big thing needs to be different enough from the current way of interacting with iphone and tablets. Apple will still be dominant because apple products say: "I can afford to spend more money than what's needed" and there's a market for that.

It's not only that, but the coolness/fashion factor Apple has been riding is in danger of sliding over in having the opposite effect when every obnoxious tween and decidely uncool parents and grandparents has the latest iPhone..

Um, let's see, the Galaxy S III was released first in late May/Early June. The iPhone 4S was released on October 14th 2011.

If Apple released the iPhone 4S-2 in June, yeah, it would be a fair comparison. But it isn't. A fair comparison would be between the Droid RAZR and the iPhone 4S. The Droid RAZR Maxx (as the first RAZR is no longer available, the Maxx being released just a few months later) sells for $99 on contract via Verizon, The iPhone 4S sells on contract for $200 via Verizon.

Companies have a choice: do they prioritize unit sales (market share), or revenue/profit per unit?

Everyone else goes with the former, because margins are thin and there's little to distinguish competing units on the low end, so they need to pump up numbers.

Apple has always gone with the latter across all their product lines. You never see discounts on Apple stuff unless a new generation has replaced the old, or during rare events like the annual Black Friday sale. This does mean that sales will slow in the

I've heard these stories for years now. "Apple misses targets of financial analysts" except that the the last three words are often left out. They missed the targets of others for years and years with the iPod. If Apple made one gazillion dollars next quarter, the analysts would complain they didn't make two gazillion dollars. Apple themselves does not put out targets like this because the rampant speculation is bad enough now. Other companies also have to deal with analysts' expectations too.

Apple themselves does not put out targets like this because the rampant speculation is bad enough now.

Actually they do, Apple do give out specific guidance and forward looking statements to the financial markets on expected earning targets. For this Q3 Apple said they would be making $34b revenue, and they did $35b, similar for profit - so they beat their own targets.

But, the problem is that they have historically so consistently given guidance significantly below actual results, quarter after quarter, even very close to publishing the results (and enjoying all the "Apple crushing expectations again" headlines), so that when this time the gap between the Apple guidance and actual results were much much less, it was a negative surprise even to the people trying to listen to the guidance directly from Apple themselves.

From all the stories I've read they didn't even note Apple's estimates. They are all harping that analysts predicted 29 M iPhones and Apple sold 26M; however, none of the analysts bothered to mention that 26M is a Q2 record.
Forbes [forbes.com] calls out the ridiculousness of the situation.

While analysts do live in their own world to an extent, they do listen to the companies. After all, those companies know best as to what is actually happening with their products in terms of numbers sold and all that.

The GP is right that Apple loved to understate their estimates for a long time. I think it started back when things were not going so well for them and they didn't want to falsely raise expectations (stocks can take a real beating if the company claims they will do well and then doesn't). Howev

Often, Apple's estimates incorporate considerable uncertainty about the reception of a new product, and Apple tends to be very conservative about this. But this is a quarter with no major product introductions (the new MacBooks came out too late to have much impact) so Apple should be able to project sales pretty accurately from past data. And sure enough, they did.

But often with Apple, there are analysts who imagine in the absence of evidence that there will be some huge spike in income. So you see a mini-

Um no. This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Your article is another one that fails to clarify that estimation was not Apple's. This Fortune article [cnn.com] specifies Apple's 26M actual vs "The Street's 28M".

Yes, sorry, it appears your original figure was right, the article I had read didn't make it clear, this article [betanews.com] is more informative. Still, missing the analysts prediction is rare for Apple.

Not really. Sometimes the analysts under estimate Apple. This time they over estimated Apple. Last Q2 they overestimated iPad sales even though it was after the holiday season and everyone knew that Apple would release the iPad 2 so they would be selling down existing inventory.

This prediction wasn't one from "financial analysts" - this was Apple's own sales forecast.

This was wrong. Apple Q3 2012 by the Numbers: $35B revenue, $9.32 EPS [betanews.com]: Apple predicted revenue of $34 billion and made $35 billion. The reason this is news is that they undershot the analysts average by about $2 billion, and because they have revised down sales forecast for the next quarter to $34 billion again (ie. flat, no xmas jump). Analysts were expecting continuous growth from Apple, 10 months ago some analysts were predicting Apple revenue growth to $164 billion in 2013, [appleinsider.com] so if growth stalls it will

I don't doubt that analysts have impact. I question their accuracy. They are almost never right in their estimations. They miss obvious factors. For example, many of those analysts badly missed their targets for the iPad for Q2 2011. Almost none of them anticipated that after the holiday season and Apple drawing down inventory for the iPad 2 would mean lower sales even though these two events were obvious.

Seriously, what are these analysts paid for. Anyone who knows the slightest bit about about what's happening in technology knows what's happening. The iPhone 5 doesn't even have a huge challenge. All they have to do is make the phone in a nicer metal body (liquid body) and maybe slimmer, which is one thing Apple can be depended on for, since their designs are industry leading. Make the screen a bit larger, make Siri a bit more functional, improve the camera a bit, and other iOS 6 features are coming anyway,

The iPad is still killing the tablet market, over two years after release.

One of the business analysts I was reading blamed the decline on the tablet market, apparently Apple is about to lose its majority position in the tablet market and margins on tablets have been declining. So... Smaller market share times fewer sold times less profit each equals big market decline. At least thats one interpretation.

I was ready to plunk down roughly $2000 for a new iMac, and they didn't announce it. How many others were also waiting? I realize the iPhone has become the primary source of revenue for Apple, but the iMac still provides a significant amount of money and shouldn't be ignored. If Apple wants to position their products in the upper end of the market, they need to keep the technology inside on the cutting edge.

They've already announced the new iMac is coming soon. There were a lot of upset people after WWDC, so Apple released a few modest statements to various press outlets indicating that the iMac has not been forgotten and that people can expect one soon. There are rumors going around that they wanted to hold off until they could make it a retina display, which was going to take a few more months, for some reason.

Let's be clear about it. An analyst will say whatever he thinks will be accepted, so they can pretty much juggle with whatever figures and estimations they have, based on pretty much anything.

More importantly though, and this is becoming more and more rare among (especially big) companies: margin went up from 41.7 to 42.8 percent. The margin is already quite impressive, and they're becoming even more profitable.

You are an idiot. Did you read the article or look at the numbers?. They missed analysts made up predictions (downwards) and their own predictions (upwards) Apple made 1.5 billion more than the same period last year.

This isn't really a "problem", except in the eyes on a market focused on quarterly earnings. They make most of their money in the quarters they release a new phone or a new tablet. That doesn't mean they make less money overall, it just focuses when the majority of that money comes in. What's really insane is that not only did they make a shit pot of money this quarter, it's a much bigger shit pot than the same quarter last year. For some reason it's a "problem" that the shit pot is slightly smaller than some random guys who don't even work for the company sort of though it might be. This is rather like you winning a gold medal at the Olympics and me being upset with you because you didn't also set a world record in the process.

The "worst" thing is to release a new product 15 months after the previous new product. For example iPhone 5 fifteen months after iPhone 4S. So you have one quarter with sales going through the roof because of a new product, then four quarters later sales are quiet because everyone is waiting for the next great product.

Apple did post a 23 percent jump in revenue from the same quarter the previous year to $35 billion, but that was about $2 billion below Wall Street's average forecast.

Note: Apple made a lot of money. Apple made even more money than it did in this quarter of last year (not typical of a company getting it's "lunch eaten". Apple did not make quite as much money as Wall Street forecast. Not Apple, Wall Street.

A lot of Apple products (along with almost every other vendor) have issues when they first come out and you have to wait for the patches. Sure, it's generally still usable without the patch but some people will find software issues to be deal breakers. At my last job, we had iPhones for everyone who was on the road a lot. Stuff like wireless was hit and miss (especially before we finally upgraded away from WEP). For any product where software is a major selling factory (IE: iOS), I'll wait 6 to 12 months fo

If you read my post, I said wireless was MORE of a problem before we upgraded away from WEP. Changing to WPA2 didn't make the issues go away completely. There were also issues with apps breaking between updates, webpages not rendering correctly, syncing issues, a ton of different email issues, and much more.

I didn't realize Slashdot posts were expected to contain exhaustive details over every little anecdote.